


A Little Mother Son Sparring Session

by discordiansamba



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:17:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6979675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/discordiansamba/pseuds/discordiansamba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Half-ghost or not, no son of hers was going to go out there and fight in such a sloppy manner- Maddie was going to have to hammer the basics into him, and there was only one way to do that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Mother Son Sparring Session

A sharp kick to his chin sent him flying up in the air a bit, the sudden burst of pain temporarily blinding him, stars dancing in his eyes. Hovering in the air, he held his head, trying to get his vision to clear.

"Now Danny." Maddie lectured him, putting her hands on her hips. "Your opponents are not just going to sit around and wait for you to recover, young man." She said, raising a brow. "You need to show more awareness in these fights. I'm amazed that you've managed to survive until this point to be frank, given how sloppy your fighting skills are.

"They aren't that sloppy." Phantom groaned, shaking his head, the stars finally fading from his eyes. "Besides, most of the ghost enemies that I battle aren't exactly ninth degree black belts."

"While that might be true, having a firm basis in martial arts can provide a strong backbone when it comes to fighting, and it will no doubt give you the upper hand. I've seen you fight some of your stronger enemies, hun, and I can tell you that your fights would go a lot easier if you had some kind of backing in the martial arts." Maddie told him. "Sadly, I'm not sure that you really have all the time in the world to sit back and learn the basics step by step. So that's why I decided to spar with you! Nothing teaches you how to fight better than sparring with a good opponent."

Phantom groaned a little, floating back down to the floor. If he had known that this was how revealing himself to his parents would have turned out, he probably would have reconsidered. But as much as this was a pain, he had to admit that his mother had a point. Maybe knowing a thing or two about actual combat would help him in fighting ghosts, even if most of them relied on their powers to fight.

But it was always annoying when your parents were right about something that you found irritating.

"I have to say though, I'm a bit disappointed Danny. You've been fighting ghosts for around a year now, and you still haven't managed to get a single hit on me yet." Maddie noted. "I haven't even been coming at you that hard."

"It's not like I'm not trying." Phantom pouted. "You're just really slippery."

"Evasion is a good tactic, Danny." Maddie told him. "If your opponent can't touch you, then they can't hurt you. You can't always rely on your ghost powers to do the work for you, otherwise you're going to find yourself in a world of trouble one of these days." She told him.

Ugh, she was right about that too. Phantom cringed, but nodded his head, getting back into a fighting stance.

His mother didn't waste any time closing the distance between them, ducking in his guard with effortless grace, aiming a punch at his face that he barely avoided. He knew that his mother was good at hand to hand combat, but he rarely had a chance to see her in action- he hadn't expected her to be this good! He was barely managing to avoid most of her attacks, forget about even touching her!

Sharp pain exploded in his lower stomach then, and he realized that his mother had taken advantage of his momentary distraction to jab her knee into his gut. Cringing, he took a step back. "Come on mom, this is only practice. Do you really have to hit so hard?" He asked, frowning a little at her.

"Oh, sorry, am I?" Maddie blinked, looking over at him. "I thought I was holding back just enough. We have to work on increasing your endurance as well, young man." She said lightly. "By the way, I was allowed to get that attack in because you didn't put any space between the two of us after you dodged, nevermind how distracted you were. You need to keep these things in mind, Danny."

"I know, I know, you've only told me that like ten times now." He said, unable to help but roll his eyes. That got a slight glower from his mother, and he found her swinging a high kick towards his head, which by some miracle, he managed to block, raising his arms up to shield his head against her leg.

But just as quickly as she struck, Maddie dropped her attacking leg back down, pivoting on her other heel and landing a kick with her other on his unprotected side, knocking him back. "Follow through on your blocks, sweetie!"

"Where did you even learn all this anyways?" Phantom asked, rubbing his side a little. The pain in it was already dulling, thankfully due to his ghost side's rapid healing. He would still probably be sore in the morning.

"I've been studying karate since I was a little girl. And from there I moved onto judo, kung fu, and other forms of martial arts." Maddie told him. "Knowing how to defend oneself is important, after all."

"Yeah, but all of that?" Phantom asked, quirking a brow. "Don't you think it's a little excessive?"

"No." Maddie blinked, clearly not understanding the question. "I think it's all very practical knowledge. And now I can pass some of my knowledge on to you, Danny. Think of our sparring sessions as a fun bit of mother and son bonding!" She told him. "We haven't been doing much of that lately, after all, so it's nice to connect with you every once in awhile."

"Yeah, well, it's not so nice when it's your fist connecting with my face." Phantom grumbled.

"If you knew how to evade attacks properly, that wouldn't be a problem." Maddie noted, and Danny grumbled again- because she was right, of course. "Now, come on, let's try again. Let's see you launch an attack at me now, honey, so far I've been the one doing all of the attacking."

"Alright." Phantom said. Clenching his fists, he rushed towards his mother, only to find her effortlessly slipping away from him, pivoting on her heel and grabbing his wrist, forcing him down to the ground with it and keeping him pinned there with one hand.

Smacking his head onto the wood floor in frustration, he groaned a little. "Come on mom, really?" Phantom asked, glancing up at her. "It's like you're not even trying here."

"I'm not, to be honest." Maddie confessed. "I'm holding back a great deal here, Danny. But the good news is, you can only go up from here! Even I started out being hopeless. But you're my son, Danny, and you have a lot of me in you, so I'm confident that you'll eventually be able to catch up to me."

"I guess." Phantom said, frowning a little. "I don't exactly like getting my butt kicked after all." He said with a small chuckle. "And it would be nice to have something to give me the upper hand in my fights against ghosts. Like against Plasmius." He said. He hadn't yet told his parents about Vlad being half ghost, and about him being 'The Wisconsin Ghost' yet. He wanted to hold on to that card for awhile, see if it could give him the upper hand eventually. Naturally, he hadn't yet told his archenemy that he had told his parents the truth about him being half ghost, either.

Boy, he couldn't wait to see the look on Vlad's face when he learned that Danny now held a card that he didn't.

Of course, somehow he also doubted that Vlad Masters was a ninth degree black belt himself. Maybe his mother was onto something here after all- perhaps there was a benefit in these sparring sessions she had insisted on. Even if they did mean he was just going to end up getting his ass handed to him by his own mother most of the time, if he could learn something from them, then that was for the best, right?

"That's the spirit!" Maddie chirped, standing up and helping her son to his feet. "Now then, shall we begin again?"


End file.
